No. 13 Volleyball opens OAC play with 3-0 victory at John Carroll

By Steven Wright

| Box Score |

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS - The No. 13-ranked Ohio Northern volleyball team opened up Ohio Athletic Conference play with a convincing three-set sweep over John Carroll 25-18, 25-11, 26-24 Friday evening at the DeCarlo Center.

Northern improves to 15-4 overall and 1-0 in the OAC, while John Carroll is now 12-7, 0-1.

Senior All-American setter Katie Weininger dished out 36 assists and had five kills, while fellow All-American Liz Schnelle had 15 kills and a .583 hitting percentage.

Senior All-OAC Samantha Markham added eight kills and a .467 hitting percentage for ONU.

Leading the way on defense was freshman libero Kasey Roeser with 13 digs and three aces and sophomore Abby Schaller with 11 digs and an ace.

Northern played a solid first set against John Carroll, winning 25-18.

Roeser began the match with an ace, and after a JCU kill, Schnelle and Weininger had back-to-back kills to give the Polar Bears a 3-1 lead.

ONU built a 13-6 lead in the middle of Set 1 and kept the seven point cushion for the majority of the rest of the set.

The Blue Streaks came out strong in Set 2, scoring the first three points off of a kill then two consecutive aces from setter Meredith McDiarmid.

The Polar Bears quickly responded with three of their own thanks to two kills from Schnelle and a JCU hitting error.

The set remained tight, as John Carroll had a 9-8 before Northern scored 17 of the next 19 points to capture Set 2 25-11.

Schnelle paced the Polar Bears in the set with eights kills, while sophomore Alex Christian added three kills and a block.

Northern again controlled much of Set 3, using a four-point spurt to take an 8-3 lead.

Junior Lindsey Pruneski came in and quickly contributed three kills and teamed with junior Renee Berry for a block to help Northern to a 4-1 run and an 18-12 lead.

JCU battled back and did not go down without a fight, closing the deficit to 19-17.

The Polar Bears rattled off three in a row from a Schaller kill and two kills from Markham to take a five-point lead, but the Blue Streaks again scored four straight to make the score 22-21 ONU.

Weininger gave the Bears a 23-21 lead with a kill before JCU scored the next three to take its first lead of the set 24-23.

Northern settled down and scored the last three points on a kill apiece from Schaller and Pruneski. Schaller ended the match with an ace.

Ohio Northern will play three OAC home matches next week, hosting Heidelberg on Tuesday at 7 pm, Mount Union on
Friday at 7 pm and Marietta on Saturday at 1 pm.